Before we continue with the Alter Rebbe's words, let us finish the subject we dealt with in the previous section: the matter of kares. "Kares" means that the rope is literally cut: by his actions the person has brought about a real severance. And yet he is not lost. Even someone who has transgressed sins that carry kares remains a Jew, and it is in his power to repair his situation and to re-enter. As our Sages say regarding those liable to kares and to court-imposed death: teshuvah and Yom Kippur suspend the punishment, and suffering scours it clean. That is the positive side of the matter: one can always come back.
At the same time, the two halves of the verse must not be separated from one another. "For the thing is very near to you" is not said on its own, without "to do it." The verse is one single statement: "For the thing is very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart, to do it." The closeness is there at every moment and at every hour, but if it never reaches "to do it," what good is the closeness?
Now to the language of the chapter: "וזהו שכתוב כי קרוב אליך הדבר מאד" ("And this is the meaning of the verse, 'For the thing is very near to you'"). This is the conclusion of the whole discussion, and this is what the verse intends. The word "מאד," "very," comes to stress that this is no ordinary closeness: in a single moment a person can rise from the deepest pit to the highest rooftop, immediately and on the spot.
"שבכל עת ובכל שעה בידו של אדם וברשותו להעביר רוח שטות והשכחה מקרבו" ("that at every time and at every hour it is in a person's power and under his control to remove the spirit of folly and the forgetfulness from within himself"). This is the very ruach shtus we spoke about, the spirit of folly that tells a person nothing has happened, that he has not been cut off, that he is a good Jew and everything is fine. It is what gives him the strength to go on sinning and reassures him that he need not do teshuvah. At any given moment it is in his hands to remove that spirit of folly and to say: am I really going to be severed, God forbid, if I act against God's will? But I want to go on keeping His will! And so too "the forgetfulness": sometimes a Jew forgets what his purpose in this world is, and it is in his power to throw off the forgetfulness as well.
The intention is not to transmit facts and information, but to take the spirit of folly out from between his limbs and fling it off himself. And although such a process would seem to take time, the Alter Rebbe rules that "at every time and at every hour it is in his power and under his control": it depends on him at every single moment.
"ולזכור ולעורר אהבתו לה' אחד המסותרת בודאי בלבבו בלי שום ספק" ("and to recall and awaken his love for the one God, which is certainly hidden in his heart without any doubt"). Every person can, at any time and at any hour, remember and awaken within himself the love for the one God that already exists in him. If he had to create a new love, that would take time, contemplation and understanding until he succeeded in arousing the emotion. But since the love is already present in his heart, all he has to do is fan it and wake it up, and that he is capable of doing at any moment.
True, within the hidden love itself there are levels, and not at every moment can a person awaken it at its highest intensity. But as a general statement, this is said to every Jew: a hidden love for the Holy One, blessed be He, certainly exists in his heart.
"וזהו שכתוב ובלבבך" ("and this is the meaning of 'and in your heart'"). This is why the verse does not say only "For the thing is very near to you, in your mouth, to do it," but adds "and in your heart": his heart too he can awaken at any moment. And why is the word written "וּבִלְבָבְךָ" with a doubled beis, in a plural form? Because there are two hearts here:
The loving heart: at every time and at every hour a person can awaken the hidden love of God in his heart, and it will move him to run and fulfill mitzvos and do one more good thing.
The fearing heart: and at every time and at every hour he can awaken the hidden fear of God in his heart, and it will guard him from stumbling and transgressing.
"ונכלל בה גם דechילו" - the text reads "ונכלל בה גם דחילו" ("and included in it is also the fear"). The expression "and in your heart" includes not only love but also yirah, and both of these directions a Jew can awaken at any moment. "דהיינו שלא ליפרד בשום אופן מיחודו ואחדותו יתברך" ("that is, not to be separated in any way from His blessed Unity and Oneness"), as we learned in chapters 20 and 21 what His yichud and achdus are. In truth it is impossible to actually be separated from His Unity and Oneness, but through his feelings and his actions a person can create a state in which he is as though separated, and such a thing he does not want. And when he grasps that every transgression of God's will separates him, he will not want to do it "אפילו במסירות נפש ממש" ("even at the cost of literal mesirus nefesh"): he will be ready to give up his life rather than transgress even in the lightest matter, because he does not want to be separated.
"בלי שום טעם ושכל מושג אלא בטבע אלקי" ("without any reason or comprehensible logic, but out of the Divine nature"). Mesirus nefesh is not built on logic. A person ready to give his life does not do it out of a calculation of profit and loss; it is simply so and not otherwise. Just as a person guards his own life, or a parent guards the life of a child, where once the danger is before his eyes he takes no account of any logic and will even do things that make no sense at all, in total self-abandon, so must a Jew go with total self-abandon to guard his connection to the Holy One, blessed be He, out of the Divine nature within him.
"וכל שכן בשבירת התאוות הקלה מיסורי מיתה" ("and all the more so in breaking one's desires, which is easier than the agonies of death"). No one is asking him to die, only to break a craving: go on living, just do not do the thing that is against the Creator's will. "שקרוב אליו הדבר יותר לכבוש היצר" ("for it is far closer to him to conquer the yetzer"). It is far easier and nearer to subdue the yetzer and break the desire than to die. And if he is prepared to die al kiddush Hashem, will he not be prepared to hold himself back for five minutes from something that is nothing but a craving?
And in this there is no distinction within "sur mera," turning away from evil: whether it is a craving in a severe matter or "אפילו מעבירה קלה של דברי סופרים" ("even a light transgression of rabbinic law"). For example, the Sages ruled that a person should not sit down to a meal before davening Maariv. On the face of it, what is the harm? But even if he is very hungry and his craving collides with the Sages' ruling, if he remembers that by sitting down to eat he is cutting himself off from the Holy One, blessed be He, since he has gone against a will expressed in rabbinic law, then breaking this craving is far easier than actual mesirus nefesh, and that very recollection will give him the strength to restrain himself "שלא לעבור על רצונו ית'" ("so as not to transgress His blessed will").
And why is it so severe? "מאחר שנפרד בה מיחודו ואחדותו כמו בעבודה זרה ממש בשעת מעשה" ("since through it he is separated from His Unity and Oneness exactly as with literal idolatry, at the moment of the act"). From the standpoint of the severance itself there is no difference between a small matter and a great one. The whole difference lies in the damage the act causes, but the severance as such is like burying the king's head in a lavatory. What difference does the size of the lavatory make, and what difference does it make whether it is for a moment or for longer? There is no difference whatsoever.
In the next lines the Alter Rebbe enters into the mind of a person who wants to stumble and reasons with himself: "I want to eat before Maariv, and what will really happen? It is a light transgression, and I have learned that from a light transgression one can come back quickly. At the moment of the act I am separated, but right afterwards I will reconnect the thread and everything will be fine." To this the Alter Rebbe answers: "והרי גם בעבודה זרה יכול לעשות תשובה אחר כך" ("but with idolatry too he could do teshuvah afterwards"). Even one who served idols can repent, and nevertheless it would never enter a Jew's mind to worship idols for five minutes on the assumption that he will repent afterwards. And if there he does not make that calculation, why here is he willing to commit the transgression relying on it?
Here the sinner might object: with idolatry I have no guarantee that I will manage to come back, since "ואף שהאומר אחטא ואשוב - אין מספיקין כו'" ("and although one who says 'I will sin and repent' is not given the opportunity, etc."), meaning that the Holy One, blessed be He, does not assist him when he wants to return (for the baal teshuvah imagines he decided on his own, and does not realize that even his return is because God is pushing him). To this the Alter Rebbe replies: "היינו שאין מחזיקים ידו להיות לו שעת הכושר לעשות תשובה" ("this means that they do not support him by giving him a favorable moment to repent"). He is not helped, but the door is not locked: "אבל אם דחק השעה ועשה תשובה - אין לך דבר שעומד בפני התשובה" ("but if he forced the moment and did teshuvah, nothing stands in the way of teshuvah"). And even so, even if a person were guaranteed in advance that if he persists he will succeed in returning, no one would say "I will sin and repent" regarding idolatry. If so, why does he make precisely that calculation with lighter transgressions? Such a calculation should never enter the mind at all.
"ואף על פי כן כל איש ישראל מוכן ומזומן למסור נפשו על קדושת השם שלא להשתחוות לעבודה זרה אפילו לפי שעה ולעשות תשובה אחר כך" ("and nevertheless every Jew is ready and prepared to give up his life for the sanctification of God's Name rather than bow to an idol even momentarily and repent afterwards"). Every person, even the lightest of the light, will die al kiddush Hashem rather than fail even for one moment, and will not say, "It is not so terrible, I will come back later." Even if he were promised that the idolatry comes with a guaranteed repair, that a taxi would be waiting the moment after to take him to a seminar and to all the lectures that would bring him back in teshuvah, he is not willing to enter that situation at all.
And why? "והיינו מפני אור ה' המלובש בנפשם כנ"ל" ("and this is because of the light of God clothed in their souls, as explained above"). The G-dly soul does not want to be severed. When idolatry is involved, a person knows this is a severance and says: I am not prepared to be cut off. But in truth, with any other sin the severance is exactly the same severance. And even if they told him it is only five minutes of idolatry and no more, he would answer: in severance there is no such thing as "five minutes"; no one agrees to have his head cut off for five minutes.
"שאינו בבחינת זמן ושעה כלל אלא למעלה מהזמן ושליט ומושל עליו כנ"ל" ("for it is not within the category of time and hour at all, but above time, ruling and governing over it, as explained above"). The Holy One, blessed be He, is above time, and therefore a severance of one second can be like a severance of eternity, since there time does not exist at all. From the person's vantage point it looks like a fleeting moment, but there it is eternity, and consequently that one minute of severance may be more severe than a thousand other things. There is no calculation here at all, and this is what a person must know: every sin, whatever it may be, has one and the same law.
And this is "For the thing is very near to you" in its plain sense: a person must keep this reality before his eyes at all times. Every paragraph in the Shulchan Aruch he should see written in large letters, "idolatry," and every place where it says "forbidden" he should translate for himself: idolatry. That way of seeing is what will give him the strength.
Why is it that "one who says 'I will sin and repent' is not given the opportunity"? Several explanations are offered:
The open door: tell a person, "We have put you outside, but we left the house open, it is not locked," and he feels no pressure. Why should I hurry? The house is open anyway; I will stay outside another hour and another two hours, and he will always be drawn after one more temptation. But tell him, "You went out, we have locked the door and you are not getting back in," and he will search every which way for an opening, a crack, anything, as long as he can get in. One who says "I will sin and repent" is essentially telling himself, "My door is always open," and therefore he is not given the opportunity: he has no urgency pushing him to return immediately, and that itself makes him fall again and again.
There is nothing left to arouse him with: a person does teshuvah because at the time of the sin he was not aware of what was happening, and afterwards a new secret is revealed to him, that there is such a thing as teshuvah, that one can reconnect, that it is not good to be cut off, and he is moved and aroused and returns. But one who knows this secret the whole time and sins with that knowledge has nothing left to arouse him, nothing left to be revealed to him that could lift him. Whatever you tell him he will answer, "I know, I am familiar with that," and nothing will stir him, because at the time of the sin he already knew it all.
He does not feel that he really sinned: a person who sins with his whole being and then suddenly catches himself and cries, "Oy, what have I done!" feels he must return. But one who says in advance, "I will sin and repent," argues to himself: even when I sinned I did not fully sin, since I knew I would come back, and I did not intend with full force to be severed. Consequently he does not feel so distant, and he has no awareness that he must return. Something similar appears in the Rambam, in Hilchos Teshuvah, where he lists things from which it is very hard for a person to repent, precisely because he does not relate to what he did as something serious.
What all these approaches share: an awareness of teshuvah at the time of the sin closes the door on a person, and he himself is the one who closes it. By contrast, one who does not think that way, so that when he is told, "Know that you have been cut off," he is shaken and says, "What, I am cut off? I must return at once!", will come back far faster.
In summary: in this section we learned the continuation of chapter 25, where the Alter Rebbe explains "For the thing is very near to you" in its plain sense: at every time and at every hour it is in a person's power and under his control to remove from himself the spirit of folly and the forgetfulness, and to recall and awaken the love certainly hidden in his heart, which includes yirah as well, so as not to be separated from His blessed Unity and Oneness, even at the cost of literal mesirus nefesh, without any reason or comprehensible logic but out of the Divine nature. And all the more so in breaking one's cravings, which is easier than the agonies of death, even with a light rabbinic prohibition, for at the moment of the act a person is separated from His Unity and Oneness exactly as with literal idolatry. We also learned that one may not rely on the calculation of "I will sin and repent," since even with idolatry one could repent afterwards and yet no one is willing to do it even momentarily; and since the light of God is above time, there is no calculation of "just for a moment" in being severed. Finally we explained three reasons why one who says "I will sin and repent" is not given the opportunity to repent.
And if we forget, we must go back and learn the Tanya again and again, in order to set these matters before our eyes and not forget, and that will protect us so that we remain connected always, with God's help.
In the next section we will discuss the different levels within the hidden love.